Morris Island - Paddling.

Morris Island is a long barrier Island right at the mouth of Charleston Harbor only accessible by boat. Our plan was to start at the public landing on the Folly River and paddle north around the back side of Folly Island to Lighthouse creek and to the south end of Morris Island near the lighthouse. This was also everyone's first attempt at coastal kayaking. Partpicipants include: Myself, My brother Chris, Ian Randolph, Adam Smith, and Nick Pieroni. I paddled my Dagger Green Boat. The other boats ranged in lengths of 12 to 14 feet.

We set off at from the landing at 9:00 right at high tide and had a moderate wind in our face. We could see the lighthouse standing in the distance pretty much the entire trip over the marsh. We We passed through the Marsh gradually seeing Dolphins as we paddled closer and closer to the lighthouse. Myself and Ian cut off to the right at one point through what I thought was a shortcut. The path ran in to a dead end and we turned around and raced back to catch up with the others. We caught up with them about a 500 yards from lighthouse creek. Adam and Nick went down another small creek which came out at the back side of the beach. The rest of us paddled to lighthouse creek and down to the beach at Morris Island. We reached the Island at 11:00.

Myself and my brother then walked from the south end of the Island to the northern end where the Civil war era "Fort Wagner" once stood. We could also see the flags at Fort Sumter in the distance, and the new Cooper River bridge. Looking across Charleston Harbor you could see the Sullivans Island Lighthouse as well. After walking 2 miles back to the south end of the island, I paddled my kayak through the 3 to 4 swells out past the Morris Island Light house for some close-up shots. I had a great time surfing my long whitewater kayak in the waves.

At 2:00, we loaded up and started to head back, so we crossed the inlet over to Folly Beach with the plan to paddle back up the beach to the pier. As we rounded the point the boats without skirts started to take on too much water too fast due to the waves, and I paddled about 200 yards off the shore and saw that up the beach the waves appeared to be even bigger. I later found out the section of beach that I was looking at is nicknamed "The Washout" and is known for having the biggest surfing waves on Folly Beach. Due to those conditions we decided to turn around head back the way we came through the marsh.

As we were going back in, the tide had just turned and was starting to come back in. We saw about 6 dolphins as we were entering the marsh. After paddling for about a hour, we realised that we had taken a wrong turn and we ended up farther inland that we had wanted to go and ended up in a 4 foot wide 1 foot deep section of Marsh in between the main channels at low tide. We were able to scrape through and get to the main channel of Folly Creek. After we got back here we paddled up to the bridge. About 1.5 miles from where we started by road, but nearly 3.5 miles by water. So we took out here after having traveled a estimated 9 miles. A special thanks goes out to Coastal Expeditions on Folly Creek for allowing us to take out there after we ended up on the wrong creek. And also one of their employees who I do not remember his name but gave me a ride down to the Folly River landing so I could get my truck. Next time I will defiantly watch my map/gps a little bit more and hopefully not get lost next time. Even with the mishap, a good time was had by all. I would defiantly recommend this scenic coastal stretch.

Pictures can be found here


Steve.